Stand up if you send Christmas cards. Sit down if you send them second class. If you’re still standing, you could be wasting money. Posting first class during the festive season is like throwing pennies down the drain.
You’re better off sticking to second class stamps on your Christmas cards this year (and every year for that matter). This will save you 9p per card, and when stamp prices eventually go up, you could even save a penny more (gasp).
Why should you forego the first class stamp? Well, you may not realise it, but Royal Mail gives up its ‘first class promise’ during a time when it expects to send 750 million merry cards.
We normally pay a premium thanks to Royal Mail’s assurance that 93% of all first class letters will arrive by the next day. But this promise is scrapped between 6 December and 1 January. So Royal Mail has no obligation to treat your first class post any differently.
Consumer Focus is advising everyone to send letters with second class stamps during this jolly time of year, since it found only 56% of first class post actually arrived the next day last Christmas. This compares to 92% of second class letters arriving within its target of three working days.
The country as a whole could save £67.5 million a year by using second class stamps on Christmas cards. But I say you could save even more by not sending them at all!
Get out your mobile phone and send your friends a festive text, pick up your landline and give your parents a jovial ring and email an electronic Xmas card to your granny. Then again, your own mantel might be a little empty next year…
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